Getting Shane Back to School

Five year old Shane lives in Tacloban. While typhoon Haiyan’s aftermath was hard on all of Tacloban’s residents, it’s was particularly hard on Shane and his family because Shane is autistic.

When Shane was diagnosed at the age of two, his mom, Charina, went to see what services were available for kids with developmental disabilities. She was shocked to find that there were almost none available in her community.

Charina wasn’t happy to simply see her son and children like him simply go without therapy, she teamed up with a professional special education teacher to found the Aram Learning Studio. The school’s mission is to promote developmentally appropriate learning support and literacy intervention for children with developmental disabilities so that they can reach their full potential.

That’s exactly what the school did for three years until Haiyan hit. The storm severely damaged the school, and it’s was closed as a result. There weren't any other facilities in the area for kids like Shane, so they had no support for his unique needs after the typhoon. For families like Shane’s, getting the school re-opened and restarting services for kids like him was their top priority.

With your support, that’s exactly what we did by re-opening the Aram Learning Studio.